Most Companies Can't Prove Their Employee Perks Actually Work, Survey Finds
Published on 09/16/2026 at 23:10 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Nearly nine in ten employers are flying blind on one of their biggest workforce investments, according to new research that paints a sobering picture of how companies handle staff benefits.
The Multibenefit Report 2026, produced by Probonio and Statista from an online survey conducted in July 2026, found that 88% of companies cannot demonstrate the impact of the employee benefits they offer. Just 12% said they are able to verify the effect of every benefit in their portfolio. The study drew on responses from 100 organisations employing between 50 and 1,000 people.
ROI remains a guessing game
That blind spot extends into strategic planning. According to the report, 43% of companies cannot make a solid statement about the return on investment of their measures. Hard data rarely drives decisions about which perks to launch, keep or drop — only 15% of employers said they base such choices on evidence.
Eleven hours a month, and counting
Administration is eating up significant staff time. Half of the surveyed companies spend at least 11 hours per month managing their benefits. For one in six, the figure climbs above 21 hours monthly — equivalent to at least 250 hours a year devoted to administering supplementary benefits.
Those hours come with frustration. 57% of respondents described their processes as extremely laborious, a burden the report attributes in part to a lack of centralisation.
Fragmented tools, fragmented oversight
The software setup behind the chaos is a major culprit. Nine in ten companies use at least two different tools or lists to manage employee benefits, and only 22% said they rely on a single central platform for all of their perks.
Taken together, the Probonio and Statista findings suggest that while benefits are widely seen as crucial for retaining skilled staff, the internal processes and performance measurement at many mid-sized firms have yet to catch up. Decentralised systems keep the administrative load high, yet the instruments needed to show what the investment actually delivers to the business are still missing.
